9 Behind-The-Scenes Stories You Didn't Know About Your Favourite Films
6. On Set Misery & Fright - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is up there with the likes of Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street when it comes to classic 1970/80's horror movies that scared a generation of kids having sleepover parties. Today, the quality of these movies is often questioned, with them now having a nice retro vibe rather than the blood-curdling intensity they once did.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has its antagonist in the shape of Leatherface, a man-eating, psychologically unbalanced mass murderer who, with the help of his family, captures, murders and cooks unsuspecting tourists.
During the most memorable scene from the movie, Marilyn Burns' character, Sally, is tied to a chair at a dinner table where Leatherface and the rest of his family tease and ridicule her for close to ten minutes. Not only is this memorable for cinema-goers but also for Leatherface himself, Gunnar Hansen.
"The whole dinner scene is burned in my memory, I think just because of the misery of it. At that point, we were really just on the verge of mental collapse. And Marilyn told me about how awful it was for her, because she was terrified... Just being tied to a chair and then having these men looming over her constantly, she said it was really unnerving. I think that whole scene was certainly the most intense part of the movie and I think all of us were slightly insane by then."
To top things off, the film was shot in Texas in the middle of summer which didn't help the cast and crew. Filming in Central Texas meant it was very humid for a lot of the cast but mainly for Hansen who spent a lot of production wearing his iconic mask which was made out of latex.